There's a lot of things here that are for many people, much easier to say than to do. (Which Ian knows, and is why he's illustrating them concrete examples, for which I'm sure many of us are grateful).
> There are a number of techniques to setting up such a game, but one
> which has been proved
>
> to work across a number of storytelling games goes as follows:
>
> Create a community. Have a one or more (for a longer game) conflicts
> within that community. Have a detente amongst the conflicting groups.
For me, this is the easy part. Although, with the Men of the Sea campaign I'm about to start, it's harder than usual. Not least because I don't know where the heroes are going to be from one session to the next. I don't even know (yet) whether they'll want to set down roots within any given community and forge long-term relationships with it.
> Create characters that have links to that community or insert the
> characters into the community and allow them to establish links.
> Have the potential conflicts relate to things the character's have
> listed on their character sheet as abilities. These are your flags,
> things the players want to appear in play. A character who has Sword
> and Shield Fighting wants conflicts that can have violent outcomes.
> Push those conflicts renewed through a crisis.
> The players, in resolving the crisis, must make choices in the
> conflicts, potentially eliminating one side or the other.
This is the part I generally find harder; setting up crises that need to be resolved, and ensuring that those conflicts are (or at least, have a fair chance of being) based around the heroes' "flags".
> Now here is a key point about setting up games with conflict. You
> cannot be absolutist with the source material.
I'd agree that this is an important point, even though I tend to be among the ones writing the source material. In particular, as you say later, it's important to allow characters to come up with off-the-wall solutions that contradict "canon". If that's works, go for it. YGWV, indeed...
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ Not a Dead Communist: http://jrevell.blogspot.com/
Powered by hypermail